1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an improvement of a pooper scooper for disposing of solid wastes from a pet animal such as a dog or the like, and more particularly to a pooper scooper which is adapted to be pointed to a rump of a pet animal by a user, when the pet animal acts as if it was ready to excrete solid wastes, to receive solid wastes excreted from it.
2. Description of the Prior Art
This kind of pooper scooper is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,717,186 to Mashayuki Yoshioka or the inventor of the present invention. The conventional pooper scooper comprises an elongated tubular body; storage means mounted on an upper wall of the elongated tubular body for carrying vertically stacked cartridges therein; and an elongated pushing rod movably inserted at its one end portion in a longitudinal bore of the tubular body for pushing a cartridge toward one end of the tubular body. The other end portion of the pushing rod is projected outwardly from the other end of the tubular body. Each of the cartridges comprises a pair of casing members pivotally connected at one ends thereof to each other, and a sack for receiving solid wastes from a pet animal. The sack has an opening at an upper portion thereof and a resilient wire provided along a margin of the opening. The sack is supported between the casing members through the resilient wire and contained between the casing members in a manner to be folded up. The resilient wire always urges the casing members to be opened away from each other. The cartridge is adapted to be stored within the storage means with the casing members being closed toward each other against an action of the resilient wire. When a user grips the other end portion of the pushing rod and pushes the pushing rod towards the one end of the tubular body, a lowermost one of the cartridges housed in the storage means is adapted to be moved toward the one end of the tubular body and operatively projected outwardly from the end of the tubular body. At this time, the casing members of the cartridge are opened away from each other due to the action of the resilient wire, whereby the sack is completely spread. In this condition, the user points the tubular body to a pet animal in a manner to cause the spread sack to be held to a rump of the pet animal, whereby the sack can receive solid wastes from the pet animal. In the pooper scooper, the elongated pushing rod is indispensable for causing a cartridge to be operatively projected outwardly from the one end of the elongated tubular body and the other end portion of the pushing rod is projected outwardly from the other end of the tubular body in order to permit the user to grip the other end portion of the pushing rod. Therefore, the conventional pooper scooper is necessarily long as a whole and unhandy to carry.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,878,703 to Mashayuki Yoshioka, or the inventor of the present invention, discloses this kind of pooper scooper in which pusher means for pushing a cartridge is adapted to be automatically moved in a longitudinal bore of a tubular body by actuating means. This conventional pooper scooper may be so designed as to be relatively short and compact as a whole, because the overall pusher means is incorporated in the longitudinal bore of the tubular body. However, the conventional pooper scooper includes the actuating means such as a reversible motor, so that the pooper scooper becomes heavier than that of U.S. Pat. No. 4,717,186.